Full Card for Oktagon 2011: Mar 12 Featured

This past weekend, Giorgio Petrosyan once again asserted his dominance over the Middleweight ranks with a victory over Sudsakorn. With that fight done, The Doctor now looks ahead to his next fight - a March 12 clash with Cosmo Alexandre.

Giorgio Petrosyan vs. Cosmo Alexandre will headline Oktagon 2011, a kickboxing and Muay Thai event taking place in Milan. The fight will be 3 x 3 rounds, K-1 rules, at 70kg. We've discussed this fight before, but it should be another good challenge for the champ. Alexandre has been hot for the past 2 years, with big wins in It's Showtime and other international promotions. He's a smart fighter with a deadly flying knee that he could use to great advantage here. The difficulty he may face is the weight cut - Alexandre has been fighting almost exclusively at 77kg recently, and a drop all the way down to 70 could be tough. He'll have to come in with a perfect game plan, and execute that game plan flawlessly if he wants to earn the win here. For fans who appreciate the technical side of kickboxing, this one could be a classic.

The full card for the Oktagon show has now been released, and unlike many smaller shows, this one features more of note than just a main event. In the past, Oktagon has worked in collaboration with It's Showtime, putting on last year's It's Showtime Milan show that featured Petrosyan vs. Khem, plus 2009's first meeting between Petrosyan and Andy Souwer. They're running this year's event on their own, and have put together another stacked card.

In the semi-main event, Giorgio's brother Armen Petrosyan faces Yoshihiro Sato under K-1 rules. Like Giorgio, Armen was also victorious this Saturday, defeating Miodrag Olar. Sato will be a step up for Armen, but the lesser known Petrosyan is a tough fighter himself, ranking at #25 in the LiverKick.com rankings. Considering that Sato recently lost to Giorgio and is likely looking for a rematch, this could be an interesting contest, giving Giorgio another opportunity to closely scout Sato, while Sato has a chance to make adjustments based on the Giorgio fight. Again, this will be a technical fight that should deliver.

Also on the card:

Andre Kulebin vs. Fabio Pinca - Pinca has been around for a few years, but has increased his profile lately, with bigger fights and a victory in the 2010 Isuzu Thai Fight tournament. He also holds a 2008 win over Sudsakorn. Kulebin is a highly respected veteran who last year was in the WKN Big 8 tournament where he made in to the finals, losing to Sudsakorn. This is a Muay Thai fight, 5 x 3 rounds, 65kg. Another one that could potentially steal the show here.

Khalid Bourdif vs. Marcus Oberg - Bourdif has been making waves in It's Showtime lately, establishing himself as a top contender at 77kg. He drops down to 70kg here to face K-1 MAX veteran Marcus Oberg under K-1 rules. Oberg is ranked at #24 in our rankings, and although he is coming in off a loss to Kyshenko, he always provides a tough challenge.

Dzhabar Askerov vs. Chris van Venrooij - Askerov is a popular K-1 MAX veteran who had a rough run in 2009 but has since come back and is 7-1 in his last 8. Van Venrooj is an oft overlooked, but solid fighter. This is a rematch from 2008, where Askerov took a split decision.

Rounding out the card: Xu Yan vs. Adem Bozkurt; and Daniel Sam, Chingis Alasov, Phillipe Salmon, and a Japanese fighter identified only as "Morija" (?) will all face opponents yet to be named.

Dave Walsh has been covering MMA and Kickboxing since 2007 before changing his focus solely to Kickboxing in 2009, launching what was the only English-language site dedicated to giving Kickboxing similar coverage to what MMA receives. He was the co-founder of HeadKickLegend and now LiverKick. He resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he works as a writer of all trades.

His second novel, Terminus Cycle, is available now via Kindle and Paperback.